Scapi DIY Theater and Performance: Recurring Shows 2019

Editor’s Note: If you would like to be featured in this recurring list of DIY theater and performance art pieces, please email and/or add DIY Theater and Performance Editor Danielle Levsky at danielle.levsky@gmail.com and send along the accessibility options that are available in your theatrical or performance art show. You must have performance ticket options available for $20 or less in order to be included in the list, for pay accessibility purposes.

We are growing a comprehensive list of recurring DIY theater and performance art pieces and shows in Chicago. These pieces occur weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.

Afterparty

Pieus Productions at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont Avenue

Join Pieus Productions for the newest circus variety show off the Red Line! Come for the circus, stay for the party featuring live music, and tons of shenanigans.

Bring Your Own Theatre! (BYOT)

BYOT Productions at The Charnel House, 3421 West Fullerton Avenue

What is BYOT? At the end of every month, five writers, five directors and a group of actors come together to create a never-before-seen show. Writers, directors, and actors are randomly grouped at a meeting the night before and then the writers have until the following morning to write an original 10-minute play. After a presumably sleepless night, the writers hand off the theatrical baton to the directors and actors to rehearse until the performance.

CAMP: A Comedy Show

Choose Your Mar Adventure

Mar Curran and Beauty Bar, 1444 West Chicago Avenue

Battling time traveling robots with Anna Howard Shaw, getting a temp job as Cupid himself, falling in love with your evil reflection in Justin Timberlake’s magic mirror—what misadventures will our guests get into this month? Join host Mar Curran as they interview their guests, and then submit them to an emotional journey via adventure choice books. Does this event still seem mysterious to you? We know, everyone tells us “I didn’t understand what your show was about until I actually saw it.” So come see it! Part interview, part live action role-playing storytelling, all weird. Hosted by Mar Curran.

Congrats on Your Success Comedy

Ecstatic Dance Chicago

Ecstatic Dance at Various Locations

Ecstatic Dance Chicago is a warm, welcoming space for community to come together to connect and to dance. Our dance floor is a conversation, photography, shoes, and alcohol free space that holds embodiment and freedom of expression in the highest regard. We invite you to be curious, playful, sexy, meditative, adventurous, and to share with others or dance alone. Our participation guidelines, and the container We create makes this safe and easy.

Freakfest

Under the Gun Theatre at Various Locations, most recently Hideout Inn, 1354 West Wabansia Avenue

Self-described as “The Lincoln Lodge’s demented little sister,” this weekly show at Under the Gun Theatre showcases some of Chicago’s most delightfully unconventional comedians. The show features no stand-up—it’s all sketch, solo sketch, songs, powerpoint presentations, and more creative approaches to presenting comedy. FreakFest is hosted by Megan Stalter and Richie Owens, though expect to see new faces every week.

J e l l o Performance Series

J e l l o at Various Locations, most recently Address

The J e l l o Performance strives for full artist visibility and inclusivity. Art-making takes a lot of time, space and money. We provide a safe environment and welcoming performance space for artists to experiment, create, risk and try! As a J e l l o artist, you have access to a performance space, production/lighting resources, and a very supportive audience. This is a great opportunity whether you are an emerging choreographer or an established artist. Previous J e l l o artists have shown works from the past, works in progress as well as excerpts from current work. There have even been collaborations involving other art forms (ie. Movement and Music)!

Nasty, Brutish and Short: A Puppet Cabaret

Nasty Brutish & Short is an evening of contemporary short-form puppet and object based theater for adult audiences. The cabaret is a low risk environment for artists to perform new and experimental work and foster artistic exchange between puppet artists of different generations and mediums.

The Newness: A Salon

The Newness: A Salon at Various Locations, most recently The Lincoln Loft, 3036 North Lincoln Avenue Floor 2

The Newness: A Salon is a space for fearlessness, vulnerability, silliness, and sharing meaningful work. Join us for a night of new work, from original music to spoken word. We’re here to celebrate art, collaboration, and each other!

No Assholes Reading Series

Come out to Uncharted Books on the first Monday of the month to hear some of the most exciting emerging writers and artists Chicago has to offer.

Check out the schedule for this monthly, recurring reading series here.

Potluck Variety Hour

Potluck at Various Locations, most recently The Frontier, 1106 West Thorndale Avenue

Potluck (n.) bi-monthly of new works in print, visual art, music and theater, connecting the personal to the communal. Potluck creates the time and space to share and celebrate all the stuff inside your brain. Every two months we bring in new artists from the Chicago community to share their best, worst, and weirdest. We’re making art with each other for each other, and we’d love to share it with you. Plus, every show ends with a dance party.

Resilient: A Celebration of Survivors

Resilient at The Playground Theater, 3209 North Halsted Street

Resilient is a monthly variety show that celebrates and benefits survivors of sexual assault. To date, Resilient has raised over $800 for Resilience and featured a diverse range of acts including standup, dance, poetry, clowning, music, improv, etc.

The Shit Hole

This is a moving variety show that showcases 25-30 constantly changing performers at each of the productions, each doing 4-minute sets. If sensitive content is included in a set, the performers provide a trigger warning before their set. Because the show moves around to different locations, wheelchair accessibility is not guaranteed.

Strip Joker

Strip Joker is Chicago’s body positive stand-up comedy show featuring a diverse line-up of comedians from around the country! In the spirit of inclusivity, vulnerability, and uncensored comedy, Strip Joker highlights the voices of queer and POC comedians, and celebrates ALL bodies as the show’s founding mission since 2016. With a new show each month, you won’t want to miss us every 2nd Saturday in our new home in Mary’s Attic, at 10pm!

That’s Weird, Grandma

Barrel of Monkeys at The Neo-Futurist Theater, 5153 North Ashland Avenue

Witness pop culture legends live onstage – or at least pop culture legends as third to fifth graders imagine them! Barrel of Monkeys’ performers portray stars past, present and fictional through outrageous dialogues, musical numbers and short sketches adapted from stories by Chicago elementary school students. Now in its eighteenth year, That’s Weird, Grandma features adaptations of stories written during Barrel of Monkeys’ creative writing residencies in Chicago elementary schools. Barrel of Monkeys’ ensemble of professional actors, comedians and musicians bring the young authors’ stories to life as raucous sketches, songs, and movement pieces, performing first for students in their schools and then for the public. These stories–from hilarious dialogues between unlikely characters to poignant pleas for social change–resonate with adults while celebrating the imaginations of young people.

The Wild Party Variety Hour

Silent Theatre Company at Various Locations

The Wild Party Variety Hour is an immersive event featuring an hour-long variety show packed with top Chicago talent encased in a shell of original shenanigans by Silent Theatre’s ensemble members Brendan Balfe (writer) and Marvin Quijada a.k.a. Silent Marvin (co-creator and host). Each production comes with its own theme that tailors the immersive components from photo booths to audience participation stations. There is a great opportunity for strangest tomfoolery to happen during WPVH, so leave your kids at home and come experience the unpredictable.

Check out the schedule for this recurring performance here and more information about the show here.

Danielle Levsky (she/her/hers) is the DIY Theater/Performance Editor of Scapi Magazine. She is also a poet, essayist, lover, mystic, Jew, intersectional feminist, vocalist and instructional designer. In addition to her work at Scapi, she has covered community news, arts/culture reviews, lifestyle editorials and arts/culture events for several publications. Learn more about her and her work at her portfolio, or connect with her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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Danielle Levsky (she/her/hers) is the DIY Theater/Performance Editor of Scapi Magazine. She is also a poet, essayist, lover, mystic, Jew, intersectional feminist, vocalist and instructional designer. In addition to her work at Scapi, she has covered community news, arts/culture reviews, lifestyle editorials and arts/culture events for several publications. Learn more about her and her work at her portfolio, or connect with her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.